Sunday 5 August 2012

Frankenstein (Blog 3)

FINAL ENGLISH BLOG OF THE SUMMER.

Check me out, only two weeks in, yeah boiiiii!!

Anyways I have finished Frankenstein all in one day! My my I am sad. Oh well. I really enjoyed it actually, like I mentioned before I like to have extra detail and the text obviously provided that as I had only ever seen film adaptations before. I liked the part where Frankenstein came to Britain with Henry and the monster kills him in Ireland. (where the reception is very unwelcoming =P). I didn't even realise that Henry was one of the victims of the Monster. I also liked the narrative frame of the sailor being told this story by Frankenstein. It's almost like 'Rime of the Ancient Mariner', but without the whole being crap part =D. And with a monster.

So overall I enjoyed Frankenstein because it's retro but easy to read and is all together a good story. Except for the whole 'I'm your cousin/sister/lover thing'. Not a fan of that. Frankenstein is just a classic Gothic story and I think it's definitely the text which I can see stand-out elements of the Gothic in, compared to Faustus and the Bloody Chamber.
All in all Frankenstein is most enjoyable, Bloody Chamber the most interesting and outright weird and finally Faustus is the most.....ok. =D

Over and out.

Frankenstein (Blog 2)

Helloo again. So this text is 191 pages long and I have just finished reading page 103ish. I am enjoying the story so far and was surprised at how little the monster's creation is emphasised in comparison to all the film adaptations. For example in the films you see the monster a lot, but in the novel it's slightly different. I also thought Frankenstein's brother William was killed a lot sooner than I expected, but I think I preferred it as it re-introduced the monster into Frankenstein's life in a really scary and tense way.

At the moment the narrative has changed hands into the Monster and he is telling the tale of his life since Frankenstein abandoned him and he ran away. I am enjoying this extra detail about what the monster has been doing and the story of the family he is living near and observing. For example I was never aware of the story of the man Felix and his Turkish bride before, and so am enjoying this extra dimension to the story.

Not much to say really as I am not going to recount the story in this blog as that would just be pointless. Basically I think I'm almost at the bit where the monster is going to ask Frankenstein to create him a female companion.

Cool. Onward with the Frankenstein.

Frankenstein (Blog 1)

Helloooo.
So I have just finished reading the very beginning of Mary Shelley's 'Frankenstein'. I obviously know the story well and we recently watched the film adaptation with Helena Bonham Carter and good old Kenneth Brannagh. By the way, did you see Kenneth at the Olympic opening ceremony? He was brilliantly dramatic as always!!

Anyway so for this text I kind of know what to expect in terms of the story line. I have got up to page 18 which is sort of the introduction to the story. A sailor writes letters home to his sister in which he tells her of his travels and how they found this European fellow floating in the ice near their boat. They nurse him back to health and the sailor becomes friends with him. The sailor then writes to his sister about how this strange man has a story he wants to tell him, and the sailor then relays it to his sister via letter. So this first section sets the  narrative frame for Frankenstein (who I have deduced is the European dude =P) to tell his story. Indeed the text then says 'Chapter I' and the story begins in first person with Frankenstein as the narrator.
I am looking forward to reading this book as I do like the story and it's pretty easy to understand all the way through. I also enjoy extra detail that obviously cannot be included in a film version. So the real message here is always read the book! ----and I am obviously really talking about the Harry Potter books =D.

Auf Wiedersehen!